Also of concern, related to FEHBP program enrollment and eligibility, is that the initial transfer of members from the FEHBP to the PSHBP is planned to occur without a centralized enrollment portal being active.
This “lift-and-shift” strategy will move more than a million members to the new program, including an unquantified number of fraudulent family member enrollments.
Once OPM has a centralized enrollment portal, the agency would need to apply the portal to these debut members. Not doing so—and not being prepared to do so at some point with any similar FEHBP centralized enrollment portal—would allow existing undiscovered fraud to continue and some federal employees may go decades before retirement without being required to use the centralized enrollment portal.
For the initial PSHBP open season, OPM is planning on collecting enrollment verification documentation for new family members.
Also, starting on January 1, 2025, OPM will require member eligibility verification documents for any new Postal employee and for Qualifying Life Events. While these are positive steps going forward to provide a better control environment, the majority of the population in the PSHBP will be at a higher risk level since the membership will not have been validated.
OPM recognizes this issue but the agency has said it would need further funding to verify enrollment on the over 700,000 members that will transfer from the FEHBP to the PSHBP.